News

Research Overview:

Recent tourism-related gentrification has been primarily driven by an increase in short-term rentals through peer-to-peer digital platforms, such as Airbnb. While many tourist cities have implemented regulations on short-term rentals, multiple studies have reported that these measures have had limited or no effectiveness. In Kyoto, tourism-related gentrification, driven by the proliferation of simple accommodations, has also become a significant concern. Therefore, Kyoto City enacted regulations that require hosts to be stationed inside the facility for regular SAs and 800 meters away from the facility for small SAs. This study elucidated the social effect of the Kyoto City government’s regulation of SAs on population change in the historical center of Kyoto City.

The findings revealed that following the implementation of this regulation, the number of new openings of simple accommodation halved, while hotel openings increased by 1.5 times. This suggests that the regulation made it more challenging to start operating simple accommodations. Additionally, despite an overall accelerated population decline in the historic center, neighborhoods that experienced new hotel openings after the regulation showed a statistically significant population increase of approximately 7.419 residents per area.

Our findings were interesting as the population increased in the NAs where hotels opened during the post-regulation period. The Kyoto City government’s regulation on SAs was neither too strict nor too lax: the Kyoto City government regulates them indirectly through the hosts’ location of SA management stations. Our findings suggest that less stringent regulation may have been effective in preventing population decline.

 Location characteristics by neighborhood associations.

Journal Information:

Journal Name: Regional Science Policy & Practice, Vol. 17, Issue 9, No. 100203 (2024)

Article Title: Effect of Simple Accommodation Regulation on Preventing Population Decline in the Historical Centre of Kyoto City

Authors: Ayane Sakuma and Haruka Kato

URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rspp.2025.100203